Northern Michigan / UP: March 2012 Archives

Tribune Broadcasting DT subchannel network Antenna TV will offer a tribute to Davy Jones, front man for 60s group The Monkees who died yesterday at age 66 from a heart attack.

From 1 - 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 4th the network will show the Monkees' 1968 movie Head, followed at 5 p.m. by a marathon of all 58 thirty minute episodes of The Monkees TV series that will run through 10 p.m. Sunday. Head will then re-air at 10 p.m.

Cracking wise up to the very end, retired radio host Dick Purtan did his duty Thursday morning, stepping up to a mirror behind a Bed & Breakfast truck outside the Salvation Army in Detroit, and shaving his iconic 42-year-old moustache off.

Michigan residents were bombarded with $7.6 million in broadcast TV political advertising in the first two months of 2012 by the Republican presidential candidates, President Barack Obama, super PACs and nonprofit groups running issue-specific ads.

Dick Purtan is saying so long to a beloved fuzzy friend he's had since 1970. While cohosting the Salvation Army's annual Bed & Bread Club Radiothon last week, the retired local radio legend told Frank Beckmann of WJR-AM (760) that he'd shave off his signature moustache if listeners pledged $100,000 during a one-hour segment of the radiothon.

When spring blooms in Saugatuck and Douglas, the production of the first Michigan Hometown Stories documentary series on WGVU public television will begin to grow as well. "It's an ongoing project. It's going forward," said Jon Helmrich on Monday.

Yesterday's fundraiser hosted by three of Ann Arbor's Cumulus-owned stations raised over $75,000 for the United Way of Washtenaw County. Stations taking part were Sports WTKA AM 1050, Country WWWW FM 102.9, and Adult Alternative WQKL FM 107.1.

Over the weekend, West Central Michigan Media Ministries returned WIHC FM 97.9 Newberry/Sault Ste Marie to the airwaves. The station now carries the organization's religious "Strong Tower Radio" format that first debuted in Northern Michigan on WGCP FM 91.9 Cadillac about two years ago.

WIHC was purchased by West Central in November 2011 for $150,000 - the station had been taken off the air by previous owner Northern Star Broadcasting at about the same time that company sold off it's Upper Peninsula radio stations (with the exception of WIHC) in 2010.

Prior to returning to the air as a Religious station WIHC has featured Easy Listening, Country, and Classic Rock formats since first signing on in the late 1980s.

Crain's Detroit Business:

Last week's retirement of sports anchor Don Shane is the latest in a series of departures of longtime on-air talent from ABC affiliate WXYZ-Channel 7 over the past 18 months, taking what industry insiders say is more than $1.3 million in salaries off the Southfield station's books.

Bill Gallagher, the professor of local journalism, went to work Friday for perhaps the 7,000th time. But the day was a special one. After more than 10,000 television news stories, today's would be his last. The day began much like the others -- with a false start.

Michigan Public Radio will host a discussion on the state's emergency manager law at 6 p.m. Monday at Blackstone's Pub, 531 S. Saginaw St. in downtown Flint. Jack Lessenberry, Michigan Radio's senior political analyst, is expected to lead the dialogue on the controversial measure. The event is part of Michigan Radio's Issues & Ale series.

Thursday's hours-long outage at Detroit's WMYD-TV Ch. 20 was apparently a power-related issue. The station was noted back on the air in the early hours of Friday.

A couple of AM radio format changes that slipped by over the last several months: Ludington's WKLA AM 1450 has dropped News/Talk in favor of Oldies; Sault Ste Marie's WKNW AM 1400 also dropped News/Talk in favor of Sports.